Worcester City Council has joined forces with a national charity to cut down on office waste.

The council is working alongside ActionAid on a scheme to encourage staff to recycle photocopier, fax and printer cartridges.

The cartridges are not biodegradable, which means they fester in landfill sites and do not break down.

The charity will hand over collection boxes and an annual certificate showing the amount of cash raised, to the council.

ActionAid, the UK's third largest development agency, will distribute the funds to healthcare and education projects in more than 30 countries.

"We chose ActionAid because they provide a smooth and efficient service, by providing collection boxes, free collections and accepting all our cartridges," said Hannah Phoenix, assistant protection officer at Worcester City Council.

"Some of the other schemes we looked at were more complicated and would not accept photocopier cartridges and needed all cartridges individually wrapped, or required an exact list of the make and model of all cartridges in the collection box."

Because the scheme is simple and straightforward, city council bosses hope that all staff will contribute.

Twelve sites have been earmarked for collection boxes and staff will be notified of the whereabouts over the coming weeks.

"Hopefully, this scheme will prompt council staff to think about items they throw away in both the home and office, many of which could be recycled," added Miss Phoenix.

A spokesman for ActionAid said the company was delighted to be working with Worcester City Council.

"The money collected will benefit many thousands of people in both developing and under-developed countries throughout the world, as well as helping towards a cleaner and safer environment," said Piers Newsome, customer support administrator for the company."

For more information about the work of the Environmental Protection Department contact Hannah Phoenix on 01905 722397.